Point in Time count finds little increase in Mobile, Baldwin county homelessness

A sleeping bag lies under the Interstate 10 overpass in the Malbis community. The man seen at the site left when approached by Point in Time survey volunteers. (Guy Busby/Press-Register)

DAPHNE, Alabama -- Volunteers around the Mobile Bay area went under bridges, into shelters and other locations last week as part of the annual nationwide study of homelessness. On Friday, teams were still checking sites such as hospitals and jails, but the initial results were that the numbers were close to those from 2010, said Dan Williams, director of Housing First, which works to help homeless people find permanent housing in the area.

"It looks like the numbers are about the same this year as last year," he said. "At least they didn’t go up again. I’d be delighted if it actually ends up being less, but I’m reluctant to say that at this point, but it looks like it’s in the same ballpark anyway."

"That’s less than last year and people seem to think there are a couple of reasons why it’s down," she said. "One is that the cold weather we’ve had this year might have made some people go to Mobile or Pensacola where they can find shelters."

Plemmons, who also directs the disabled-homeless program for Catholic Social Services, said some volunteers also speculated that an ordinance passed by Daphne in 2010 prohibiting panhandling within 25 feet of a public road may have led some homeless people to leave that area.

In the 2010 Point in Time count, volunteers found 883 homeless people in Mobile and Baldwin counties, according to the survey report. Of those, 435 were men, 283 women and 165 children. The total was an increase of 18.7 percent from the 744 found in 2006.

Baldwin County had 116 homeless people in the 2010 survey.

One team accompanied by the Press-Register on Thursday made contact with no homeless people in areas of Spanish Fort and Daphne where 17 men and women had been located a year earlier.

One man was seen in a campsite under an interstate overpass, but left before he could be approached by volunteers.

"That happens at times," Williams said Friday. "We had some of that in Mobile as well, some shifting. You won’t find people in some areas, but you’ll have more in others."

This year, some of the survey questions included military service in an effort to determine how many of the homeless are veterans.

"We’re looking this year at the number of veterans," Williams said. "I saw a lot of surveys where that question was answered, so I know we have a better picture of the veteran situation."

The survey is used each year to help determine federal funding for programs to help the homeless and the makeup of the homeless population.

While the survey counts people in shelters or living on the street, it does not include people who have lost their homes and are living with friends or family.

Plemmons said those situations are often found in Baldwin County and among families who have lost homes. She said that in a poll of 1,200 people on the waiting list for public housing in Foley, about 230 said they were homeless. Most of those said they were living temporarily with other people.